Washington, DC — In response to news that the Trump administration is deploying the National Guard to assist in processing people for immigration detention in 20 states, Setareh Ghandehari, Advocacy Director of Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement:
“The escalating use of the National Guard to carry out the administration’s cruel mass detention and deportation agenda is yet another marker of an authoritarian regime. Earlier this summer, protests in Los Angeles and nationwide illuminated that people do not want ICE, detention centers, or any militarized presence in communities. Trump’s use of the National Guard in communities sows fear, creates tension, and steamrolls the leadership of local elected officials. The deployment of the National Guard in 20 states, including Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Texas and Louisiana, is an alarming unilateral move that will supercharge the already massive police presence in communities – further entrenching the police state across the country.
ICE’s partnership with the Department of Defense (DOD) continues to deepen, making the agency a key collaborator in the massive expansion of the immigration detention system, which is already operating at a historic high. Detention on military bases consists of large-scale, makeshift tents that are costly, exacerbate the well-documented abuse inherent to the detention system, and enable the secrecy and impunity with which ICE operates to flourish. The administration's expansion of detention on military bases and its plans to turn them into “deportation hubs” is intended to obscure transparency and oversight and alarmingly conflate immigration policy with national defense. As outlined in a letter from the Secretary of Defense and recent reporting, the administration plans to use Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst in New Jersey to detain up to 3,000 people in ICE custody, as well as Camp Atterbury in Indiana, while increasing the use of the notorious Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba. The Trump administration also plans to spend $1.26 billion on a new detention center at Fort Bliss in 2027 for up to 5,000 people, which will make it the largest detention center in the country.
The increasing use of military bases, funding, and personnel for the targeting, detention, and deportation of people is beyond the scope and scale of any immigration enforcement plans we’ve seen before, setting a dangerous precedent. It’s clear Trump and Stephen Miller are driven by a racist compulsion and will stop at nothing to proliferate hateful ideologies, intimidate government agencies, and disregard local elected leaders with the goal of villainizing all immigrants.”
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Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States.